Casamara - Riding the Travelator

Riding the Travelator

Casamara

John & Susan Simpson

Sun 16 Nov 2025 12:45

It was on the island of Reunion that the crew of Casamara really perfected the art of the long, lazy lunch! The World ARC fleet was berthed alongside a quay wall in the fittingly named town of Le Port on the north west corner of the island. It was a half hour walk into town and there wasn’t a lot there when you arrived, the star attraction being the local restaurants. Our mouths salivated as we read the curly French writing on the blackboard menus outside each one, describing familiar French dishes but with a Creole slant. We soon found that you can while away an entire afternoon very pleasantly with a nice lunch and ‘une pression’ of cold beer or a glass of the very drinkable French house wine.

As well as French cuisine Reunion island has white sand beaches, clean seas with good snorkelling, and excellent hiking. The interior of the island is mountainous and the roads to the highest points take you through lush, green farmland reminiscent of the lower slopes of the Alps. We took a tour to see the active volcano and walked around the crater rim. Those of us who’d seen the erupting volcano in Vanuatu as we crossed the Pacific were a little underwhelmed as there was no larva nor any sign of life in the crater. However, it was a great walk and good to be getting some exercise after sedentary boat life.

Reunion’s alpine interior

Ian hired a car one day and bravely drove us up an incredibly winding road into the mountains for what we thought was going to be an easy hike. The Cap Noir loop turned out to be a ridge walk with sheer drops either side and steel ladders to climb when the rocks were too steep sided for walking! I’m not a great one for heights so Chris and I bailed out but Ian and John were brave enough to complete the loop and lived to tell the tale. As Chris and I waited for the return of the intrepid duo we were treated to a sighting of the male Red Fody bird. About the size of a sparrow, it has bright red feathers during the mating season and was a striking sight to see amongst the trees.

Male Red Fody on Cap Noir

Cap Noir - don’t look at the drop behind those bushes!

Once Ian had recovered from the exertion he took the wheel again to drive us back down the switchback road towards Plage de l’Hermitage, one of the island’s best snorkelling spots. Our plan to have lunch there was nearly scuppered as the walk had taken much longer than expected, but three o’clock in the afternoon isn’t too late for lunch, right? Fortunately, the maitre d’ at one of the beachfront restaurants agreed and we were able to indulge our long lunch habit, followed by a quick swim and a nice snooze on the beach before the end of the day!

Lunching at La Varangue Du Lagon

The passage from Reunion to Richard’s Bay in South Africa is one that makes most sailors more than a little nervous. At just under 1,400 miles, it takes around 8 days and that’s a bit too long to allow for an accurate weather forecast before you set off. There are two ‘crunch’ points where seas can be very rough: one is the area just south of Madagascar and the other is a strip about 100 miles wide off the eastern coast of South Africa where the Agulhas current runs. Winds in this part of the world can change very quickly and if a strong wind runs against a strong current it can whip the sea up into huge, steep waves, creating dangerous sailing conditions. A chart of the currents looks reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting with its swirls and colours - the red colours show where the current is running fastest. The trick to sailing across to South Africa is to try to get into one of the currents heading west with the wind behind you so that the flowing sea adds to the boat’s sailing speed but the sea remains calm.

Current chart showing Casamara’s route closing in on South Africa

The talk amongst the World ARC fleet was all about when to set off. The scheduled date for the rally was 5th November, but skippers take responsibility for deciding whether to go then or not. John had decided that leaving on 4th November looked more favourable so we packed up and checked out ready to go, only to decide on the day that we could wait for the official start the following day, after all. With everything ready to go there was only one thing to do whilst we waited - go for another nice long lunch!

Almost as soon as we’d departed from Reunion, the weather forecasts started to show signs of a frontal system coming through towards to the end of the passage. Unless we were careful, we’d end up in the Agulhas current - one of the fastest moving ocean currents in the world - just as a strong Southerly wind blew up to create potentially dangerous conditions. From that moment, the passage became a race against time and, whilst the sailing was actually very pleasant, it was a nerve-wracking week. John would check the forecasts every few hours and eventually they settled into a firm prediction that the strong winds would arrive on Thursday 13th November around lunchtime. Our options were to press on as fast as we could in order to get to Richard’s Bay before the front arrived, or to hang back to let the winds blow through. We didn’t really fancy the latter! As the passage progressed we calculated and recalculated what speed we needed to average in order to beat the weather. Thankfully, we were able to navigate ourselves into one of the strong west-flowing currents and rode the sailing equivalent of an airport travelator for nearly 48 hours. At between 9 and 10 knots speed over the ground versus our normal speed of 7 knots, this was a significant boost. By the time we sailed out of the current we’d covered enough ground to make getting in before the storm arrived possible. Ironically, in the lull before the storm there was no wind at all and we reached Richard’s Bay under engine, crossing the finish line at 0631 on 13th November. There was great relief all round as we tied up to the pontoon at the Zululand Yacht Club and celebrated with our welcome bottle of fizz just as the winds started to increase!